Price of wine set to increase due to Brexit

The full effects of Brexit have yet to be felt, but wine-lovers may get a taste for them sooner than most.

The cost of enjoying a glass of wine after a long day may increase following the vote to leave the EU, due to a weaker pound driving up the price of imports.

Barolos, Burgundies and Beaujolais are set to be most affected due to small yields caused by bad weather coupled with an unfavourable exchange rate.

Enotria & Coe, the UK’s largest premium wine importers, said prices would rise at the start of next month. It estimates half of its wines will increase by up to 5 per cent, while another 15 per cent will rise by seven per cent.

David Gleave, managing director of Liberty Wines, which imports and distributes primarily to restaurants and other trades, predicts customers will only begin to feel the knock-on effects this autumn.

“We’re going to start seeing price rises filtering through now – we haven’t seen much yet.

“Demand for wine has been falling for a few years, the market is shrinking.”

But he cautioned against fears that all wines will increase in price.

“It won’t be a consistent picture – sterling has fallen much more against the American and Australian dollar than the Euro, so there’ll be much less of an impact on European wines,” he said.

Majestic Wines, the UK’s largest specialist retailer of wine, does not predict a notable price rise this autumn.

Chief executive Rowan Gormley told the Financial Times: “Based on current trading, it’s hard to say there’s been any effect at all.

“My hunch is that any price increases will be gentle, and won’t be different from the increases in duty that customers are used to.

“Our average bottle of wine is £8, and about half of that is taxes. The wine itself costs £3 to make, so a 10 per cent fall in the currency means an extra 30p on the bottle. That’s the scale of the price change we’re looking at.”